At What Age Do You Think Adulthood Really Begins? – Survey of the Day

In 1993, Newsweek asked parents with kids 16 and under when their children’s financial independence should begin. Eighty percent answered with an age 22 or lower, whereas only 18 percent offered an age 25 or higher.

When Pew re-asked this question earlier this year, they found that now 67 percent believe kids should be on their own by 22, and 31 percent expect to be helping their children until they are at least in their mid-20s.

Interestingly, when the question was posed to all adults regardless of parental status, the younger a person was, the earlier they tended to believe adulthood — and the financial independence that would go with it — began.